FIGS!!

 After five years of no fruit, my fig tree is finally producing! Large, sweet, decadent figs! They are absolutely gigantic! Whoo hoo! I'm so excited!

Garden Rehab

Last fall I did a total reconstruction of my yard, but I didn't get to this last bed in the backyard: the former Moon Garden, Veggie Garden, Sun Garden, and now Daisy Garden. Due to ignoring it for years, it was an overgrown mess and unfortunately, I didn't take any "before" photos. Too embarrassing, but now I wish I would have.

I dug up the whole thing! 

Behind the soon-to-be Pink Garden will be the Yellow Garden!
To the left in the sun is the raised bed Veggie Garden.

I removed weeds, transplanted the daisies out to the side garden, transplanted the African daisies to the adjacent (yellow) garden, saved the pink yarrow, and transplanted the pink asters from the dog garden to the pink garden. I saved the pink lilies, pink foxglove and the pink gladiolas. I also dug up all the snowdrop bulbs, but they are so small I doubt if I got them all. I replanted them in a section of the pink garden with the lilies. I like snowdrops. They are the first sign spring is close.

I did leave the new starts of Evening Primrose. Although they are yellow, they didn't bloom this year so next year they should and then I'll transplant them out.

It's a lot of work, but once it's done it's so clean and beautiful. I'll get some mulch to keep it that way.

This winter I plan to get a load of new gravel for the outside and next spring find some pretty pink flowers for some joy and happiness! 

If you have any pink flower suggestions, let me know!

Where Did Summer Go?

Summer now seems like a dream. I know it happened, but I must have been in a fog after the hell that was the coronavirus spring. Or it just went too fast. With all the isolation time, I spent most of it in my garden.

Last fall in an attempt to downsize and eliminate so much of the work and weeding, I ripped out a lot of beds, covered the bare dirt with cardboard, and spent the winter tromping on it to flatten it all out so weeds wouldn't grow. It was a lot of work, but I had confidence this would in the long run make my life less exhausting and more enjoyable. A friend of mine not too long ago exclaimed, "Don't you love strolling in your garden?!" I looked at her in disbelief, "When? When would I have time to stroll when there is always too much work to maintain it?" I made a point to let her know her husband tends to do all the "work" for her.

Then this spring I removed the cardboard, dug up what weeds attempted to grow and covered everything with bark. THREE LOADS of bark! But I love it:

It's such a clean look and it worked! I spent very little time this summer pulling weeds! Hooray!

I did add one plant last year that didn't do much, but I was told it would bloom the following year. Asparagus:

And it did once it grew to eight feet tall!

The bees went absolutely crazy. I don't have photos of them, but during midday I'd see up to five bumbles on one blossom. It was a spectacular plant.

The apple tree went crazy with apples. All the organic spraying I did all winter really helped. Beautiful apples, but then they started dropping about fifty every night. I fed them to the deer and gave them to a friend who has pigs.

The Italian prune tree also went crazy. I gave lots of plums away to friends and sold them to strangers. I counted 1740 plums, not counting the ones the family of seven raccoons ate every night.

Then there is the fig tree! I've never had figs. Last year I transplanted the fig tree out of its pot and into a garden outside my fence that gets sun all day long. The tree is loaded, but it's October and they are still green. I don't know anything about figs so I'm not sure when they ripen. We'll see.

I also grew basil on my deck, and onions, beets and spinach in my raised planter. 

The summer war started and ended with a hornet's nest. I check the eaves of my house and outbuildings all the time in the spring for the start of nests, knock them down, and feel safe. Not for one minute did I ever expect hornets to make a nest UNDER my deck!

One day while I was walking over the deck on the way into the house and wearing sandals I felt a pinch on my foot. I rubbed my foot not sure what that was and continued. I came out the door the second time and a hornet stung me on top of my foot. OMG! The pain was so intense. I had something in my hand and swung at him, he dodged, and came back for another attack. I ran in the house fast. After treating the sting to the best of my ability, I watched from the safety of my glass door and sure enough, baby hornets crawling on the deck just outside the front door and disappearing between the planks. I had not noticed them before. At dusk I peeked under the deck and there was the nest about sixteen inches in height. Holy mackerel! It must have been there for a while but I never noticed. I got some spray. It didn't work. I went through two cans and even after I poisoned the nest, knocked it down, hornets still hung out on the deck. So I began watching for them and when they appeared, sprayed them directly with the spray. There was one hornet that I'm sure was the leader, relentless and mean.

The deck needed repairs so it was important to get rid of them. Even as I started working on the deck two months later, one hornet buzzed too close, but after being swatted left never to return. So scary.

My sting swelled and turned bright red. The pain was intense like an electric shock and lasted for days. After a few days I called the doctor to find out if I should be concerned. They suggested I outline the swelling with a pen and watch to make sure it doesn't grow. People die from these stings. In another twenty four hours the swelling went down. Nasty bugs!

My fall project is cleaning out the daisy garden. I'm going to make it a pink garden. It's the last one to be redone for downsizing!

Hooray!

Saving the Apple Tree

I can't believe the summer has come and gone already!

Last year, I realized too late my apple tree had some kind of disease. The limbs were literally rotting before my eyes. Raccoons would climb it and fall out of the tree because the limbs would break. I was in a panic, but figured if I couldn't fix it, I'd have to remove the whole tree. I read this was my fault. The year before I doused it with rabbit manure tea too early in the spring and with all the rain and damp created a nesting area for bad bacteria. Oh well. Live and learn. I'll never do that again!

I went to the local organic gardening center and asked what to do. They gave me a recipe to treat the tree and add nutrients, expensive nutrients. I bought Neem Oil, Fish Fertilizer, and Sea Crop to mix and spray on the tree once a month all winter. That Sea Crop is made from ocean minerals and at $40 per quart it's GOLD! The Neem Oil is nearly as expensive. I also sprayed the cherry and Italian prune trees just to be safe. I was really afraid the disease would spread as it normally does through fallen leaves and spores.

Then a friend of mine told me to paint a mixture of baking soda and molasses on the trunk and affected limbs. She didn't know why, but I assumed molasses is high in iron and baking soda neutralizes fungi and viruses. I worried rodents, raccoons or opossums might want to eat the bark. Later I was told deer LOVE molasses and are attracted by the smell. Do you blame them?? Thankfully I have a five foot fence around my yard so at least the deer weren't tempted to nibble.

I'm not sure which of the above remedies worked, but the apples are much better than last year. Bigger, hardly any blemishes or bugs, but fewer which is better anyway since the weight of too many apples is hard on the limbs. Bigger and fewer is usually from good nutrients. And so tasty!

The bark and limbs seem to be healing. I keep wondering if it's my imagination, but then I remembered I took photos last year to share with my friend.  Is it my imagination?

Last fall:

This fall:

Are the welts closing up? And the trunk seems to be healing:

It seems to suck up all the molasses as it doesn't sit on the surface, well, either than or the critters are licking it off!

Unfortunately, it didn't seem to do anything for the cherry tree which has gotten worse and I think the nutrients were too much for the Italian prune which only produced four prunes this year (one of them was hanging over my fence...the postman stole it...grrrr!) compared to 2500 prunes last year.

I'm going to invest in some more supplies and continue to treat the apple and cherry trees this winter and pray this disease doesn't get to the Italian prune. So happy to be able to save the apple tree.

Garden Harvest

Regretfully, I don't have much to show.

Here are my squash:

I grew them in big pots this year and sorry to say, as usual even when in the ground, they are still puny. Actually I think they are a little bigger than when I have grown them directly in the ground, but not by much.

Not even sure if it's big enough to eat.

Carrots are OK:

The biggest pot has the biggest carrots.

As much as I like growing food, it never seems to be worth all the expense and work.

Italian Prunes

My Italian Prune tree is LOADED this year. Thousands of prunes. Last year I think it only produced a small bowl full. This year I've already given away five bags and have barely made a dent in the supply! Aren't prunes good for your colon? Added bonus!

HOORAY!!

Added Self-Reliance, or "I LOVE my garden!"

I love this time of year after I've spent most of the spring and summer weeding and the garden is finally looking good. Well, most of it. It's a lot of work. Often I think I need to downsize, it's too much work! But once it's done, it feels worth it. Yesterday I hauled the second load of bark for the pathways. Whew. And I don't even have a pick-up truck so I have to hand shovel it in and out. Once it's all finished I revel in the beauty.

Time for a tour!

Back gate entrance: the daisy garden

Potted garden with elf house

Elf house with ivy
(Yes, I'm purposely growing ivy. Crazy.)

Side walkway and dog pen with asters
(Good use for dog pen....)

View of side walkway from front garden

Entrance to front garden

Front of deck path of front garden

Front path

Front path opposite view looking at
Italian Prune tree

Apple tree

Under apple tree

Love in a Midst garden with Feverfew
with oregano garden behind

Squash

Garden Update

My fruit trees are going crazy. More fruit than I've ever had before. I guess it pays to spray them down all winter with sulfur.

The apple tree is so crowded it has expelled at least a thousand apples as it self-thins.

Below is the second bucket of baby apples that sacrificed themselves for their bigger and stronger siblings. I just hope the apples that survive don't look ugly like they did last year. Crossing my fingers the sulfur worked on the fungus/virus/bacteria or whatever that was. We'll see. It's a learning process for sure.

The Italian prune tree is the same and all the extra prunes are now turning yellow and falling off. I'm trying to help both trees by thinning them by hand as well.

The cherry tree has never had so many cherries. It has two different varieties and the early variety is packed, more cherries than I've ever seen. As I recall, last year this variety produced about two cherries. And that is not an exaggeration!

The squash and carrots on the deck are doing well, too!

I have a really hard time thinning plants. In these two tubs I think I planted eight seeds each. I knew I couldn't keep them all, but at the time I didn't think they would all sprout. ARGH! It was like murdering babies. I ended up keeping two plants in each tub which is probably too many, but I couldn't kill the last one. They seem to be alright so far, but maybe when their vines start spreading they won't want their mate in the tub with them!

The fig tree, on the other hand, has produced NOTHING.

The friend that gave it to me told me to put it in a pot as I wanted to take it with me when I move, but I think that was bad advice. Another friend said when he put his fig in the ground it finally started producing. I'll transplant it this fall, but the problem is I don't know where! I've run out of full-sun space.